Due to the popularity of dragracing among young and old alike, a number of dragster toys have been available in the past. While some of these toys have been more commercially successful than the others, all of them simulate one or more of the features of the sport of dragracing. This invention represents an improvement over prior toy dragsters, due to its lightweight, low cost, simplicity in design, sturdiness, stability in performance, and perhaps most importantly, its ability to achieve high speeds.
The invention contemplates a toy dragster which includes, as its basic components, a body, a skate, a bouncer and a wingplate. The skate and the bouncer support the forward and the rearward ends of the body, respectively, while the wingplate is located adjacent to the rearward end of the body and is adapted to be acted upon by a jet blast of air, as by a blow gun, to propel the car along a smooth surface. Due to the streamlined design of these components, along with several additional components which provide stability in performance, and which will be described later, this lightweight toy dragster is able to achieve extremely high rates of speed over a smooth surface. Some of these dragsters built according to the teachings of this invention have covered a 96 inch straight flat course in less than 0.020 seconds.
While the invention contemplates a number of embodiments, each of the embodiments incorporates the basic components described above. The body is basically an aerodynamically shaped rectangular box The skate attaches to the front end of the body and extends downwardly. The bottom of the skate comes to a point so that, at its forward end, the dragster has very little physical contact with the racing surface. The skate maintains the forward direction of the dragster.
The bouncer is connected to the body such that it provides a curved surface for supporting the rearward end of the dragster above the-smooth surface. The bouncer has a forward section which attaches to the bottom surface of the body, between the forward and rearward ends, and a rearward section which attaches to the wingplate. The bouncer serves as a motion amplifier to enhance propulsion of the dragster.
The wingplate mounts to the rearward end of the body, in substantially vertical orientation, but tilted somewhat forwardly. The wingplate serves as a striking surface for a jet blast of air which propels the dragster along the smooth surface. The size and shape of the wingplate plays an important role in determining the speed capability of the dragster.
This toy dragster may be propelled by a blast of air blown through a hollow tube aimed at the wingplate. This manner of propelling the dragster is suitable when the racing surface is a table and the operator can kneel behind the dragster at a desired vertical level. However, if the dragster is to be propelled along the floor, it may be inconvenient to orient the tube at the optimum angle and then blow air through, particularly if the individual elderly or has difficulty crouching over.
This invention also contemplates the use of a blow gun assembly which includes a support for holding a rigid forward tube of a blow gun at a preferred angle with respect to the wingplate of the dragster and a flexible tube which connects to a rearward end of the rigid tube. The connection of a flexible-tube to the already mounted rigid tube enables an individual to stand or sit in a comfortable position while blowing into the flexible tube to deliver a blast of air to a preferred strike point of the wingplate.
These and other features of the invention will be more readily understood in view of the following detailed description and the drawings.